Colorado

Firefighters await break in weather

Firefighters hoped for a prolonged break in the weather Monday while anxious evacuees waited for news about an 11,000-acre wildfire that chased 5,000 people from their southern Colorado homes.

“It’s a nasty one. We hope the weather will cut us a break in the next couple of days,” U.S. Forest Service spokesman Dave Steinke said. Winds already were calmer and the humidity higher Monday, he said.

The blaze threatened 750 houses, outbuildings and other structures in Beulah and surrounding ranching country, nestled in dry terrain in mountains about 150 miles south of Denver.

No injuries had been reported and no homes had burned.

More than 420 people, nine air tankers, five helicopters and 24 fire trucks were on the scene. Gov. Bill Owens declared a state of emergency for the fire area and put National Guard helicopters on standby.

In South Dakota, a wildfire blackened more than 3,000 acres in the Piedmont area of the Black Hills, destroying a mobile home, a motor home and an outbuilding.

Arizona

Children missing; three relatives found slain

Arizona authorities were searching for two young children Monday missing from a home where their grandparents and an uncle were found slain the night before.

Eighteen-month-old Bryan Cervantes and his 3-year-old sister, Jennifer, were believed to be with their father, Rodrigo Cervantes Zavala, who may have been headed for Mexico, officials with the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office said.

Authorities described Cervantes Zavala, 34, as an “investigative lead” rather than a suspect. The children’s mother told investigators that he had threatened the family several months ago.

Investigators went to the children’s home late Sunday after two hang-up 911 calls were recorded, said sheriff’s spokeswoman Kit Rustenburg.

The bodies of Saul Lopez Acosta, 63, and Trinidad Castro Acosta, 51, were found in the living room. Jesus Manuel Acosta, the children’s 17-year-old uncle, also was dead.

Washington

White House focuses on O’Connor replacement

The White House said Monday it was prepared for the possibility of the first double vacancy on the Supreme Court in more than three decades but said it had received no signal that the widely rumored retirement of Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist was about to happen.

Lacking any definitive word, the White House focused its efforts on replacing retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. President Bush’s advisers have reached out to more than 60 senators about the impending nomination – although some Democrats said the administration was not sharing the names of nominees on Bush’s short list.

Bush planned to discuss the court situation on Tuesday at the White House with Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee; Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the ranking Democrat on the committee; Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.; and Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.